[1] The contents presented in Crossing the Threshold of Hope were originally intended to be broadcast as a live television interview with Vittorio Messori, an Italian journalist and writer.

He reflects on Descartes’ philosophy of “I think, therefore I am,” while referencing Kant, Hegel, Husserl, Heidegger, Aristotle, and Plato when defining the history of European thought.

Although the pope writes to a worldwide audience, he also speaks specifically of the Catholic faith, including references not only to the Sacred Scriptures, but also many saints: Augustine's City of God, John of the Cross and his Ascent of Mount Carmel, Thomas Aquinas and the Summa Theologica, and many more.

Metaphor, anecdotes, humour, imagination rarely trouble his style; he prefers the long pedantic plod through Aristotle and Plato, St Paul, Augustine, St Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Pascal, Kant, Hegel, Husserl and Heidegger”[12] The Pope's negative portrayal of Buddhism received widespread criticism within the various branches of Buddhism across the world.

In response to receiving several letters from Poland, from individuals and from a publishing house, asking him to comment on it, Thinley Norbu Rinpoche (one of the key teachers in the Nyingma lineage of Tibetan Buddhism) wrote the book Welcoming Flowers from across the Cleansed Threshold of Hope: An Answer to the Pope's Criticism of Buddhism to address the "serious, gratuitous misrepresentations of Buddhist doctrine which seemed to be based on misunderstandings" contained within Crossing the Threshold of Hope.

[13][14] The release of the book in Sri Lanka on the eve of the Pope's January visit to this country stirred up waves of indignation in the Buddhist community that spread as far as the Vatican.

Although on arrival the Pope tried to appease the feelings of Buddhist leaders by declaring his esteem for their religion, even quoting the Dhammapada, he fell short of proffering a full apology, and this did not satisfy the Sangha elders.

[15] The English satirical magazine Private Eye attacked the book; "A few pages reveal however, that this is no interview at all, being constructed instead on the age-old Catholic model of the Catechism, in which the grovelling postulant is not only given all the answers to memorise but has all the questions dictated to him too.

"[17] Crossing the Threshold of Hope has been cited by many, including Scott Hahn (Lord, Have Mercy: The Healing Power of Confession), Eugene Mario DeRobertis (Phenomenological Psychology: A Text for Beginners), Harold C Raley (A Watch Over Mortality: The Philosophical Story of Julian Marias), R Baschetti (Evolutionary, Biological Origins of Mortality: Implications for Research with Human Embryonic Stem Cells), Anthony Scioli (Hope in the Age of Anxiety), John Berkman (The Consumption of Animals and the Catholic Tradition), and Christopher Jamison (Finding Sanctuary: Monastic Steps for Everyday Life) and more.